Framestore · Automated vehicle rigging system
Vehicle rigging
I build around 90% of my vehicle rigs with my own automated vehicle rigging system in Maya, which adds dynamic suspension, path constraints that keep wheels on the ground, run-flat tyres and drift controls. At Framestore I rigged new cars for the Tooned series, including a cartoony squash-and-stretch police car and Bruce McLaren's car, which I rigged so every section could break.
- Studio
- Framestore
- Role
- Automated vehicle rigging system
- Tech
- Maya
The challenge
Cars in animation look simple but take a lot of work to animate well. Wheels have to roll at the right speed and stay on the ground, suspension has to react, and a car has to follow a path without sliding. Done by hand, that eats hours of an animator's day, especially in busy scenes.
What I did
Around 90% of my vehicle rigs are built with my automated vehicle rigging system. It handles the harder mechanics and adds the features that save animators the most time:
- Dynamic suspension.
- Path constraint systems that steer the vehicle along a route while keeping its wheels on the floor and rolling them.
- Squashy run-flat tyres, suspension control, and roll and turn controls spread over several controllers.
- Wheels that can roll together or independently, and front steering that can be turned with a steering control or aimed at a target, whichever suits the shot.
- A control above the engine that swings the tail of the car for drifting, plus plenty more options tucked behind a single control.
At Framestore, most of the Tooned vehicles had been rigged by Amar Chundavadra before I joined the project. Later in the series, new cars were modelled for me to build systems for:
- Tooned police car: squash and stretch over the body and wheels, bendy systems across different areas of the car to make the deformation as cartoony as possible, and plenty of secondary controllers.
- Bruce McLaren's car: for episode two of the new series, which goes back to New Zealand in 1952 when 14-year-old Bruce McLaren discovers racing. The car was fully rigged, with every section rigged to break.
The outcome
With these features built in, a whole city of moving cars can be set up in very little time, and animators get hours of their day back. The police car and Bruce McLaren's car were built for the Tooned series at Framestore.
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